Steve Carell on Fame, Comedy, and an “Anchorman” Sequel

This morning, some four hundred fans made the trek to the far west side of Manhattan to hear Steve Carell in conversation with the New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend. As audiences go, this was not—strictly speaking—a tough crowd. Still, even if there were a few skeptics in the audience at Stage37, it’s likely they walked away converts. Simply put, Steve Carell is impossible to dislike.

Carell’s eminent likability is rare for any celebrity, much less a comedian. As the filmmaker Judd Apatow told Friend earlier this year, “When I work with someone, I always try to figure out ‘What’s your wound? Who hurt you?’ It’s easier to write for them if I can figure out the neurosis … but I’ve never been able to figure that out with Steve.”

For his part, Carell doesn’t buy the idea that comedians actually need a wound to be funny in the first place. “I don’t think it waters it down, having a happy upbringing,” he told Friend. If Carell had pursued a career as a lawyer, something he once considered, “Then I’d be scarred and bitter,” he said.

He also shared his favorite “talk show” anecdote, one that encapsulates his regular-guy-who’s-somehow-landed-in-Hollywood persona. His nine-year-old daughter Annie recently set up a lemonade stand at the end of their driveway. Billy Ray Cyrus—father of teen queen Miley, who lives just around the corner—stopped by, leaving a twenty-dollar tip on his twenty-five-cent tab. Moments later, a band of paparazzi stopped by, followed by policeman in pursuit of said photographers; both contingents also tipped heavily. The result was that in just a few hours, Carell’s daughter came home with sixty dollars in her pocket, much to her father’s chagrin. “It’s such a warped view of the world. I want [my kids] to be normal but they’re like, ‘I’m buying a laptop.’” Carell explained the realities of fame in similarly relatable terms. “When I was on ‘The Daily Show,’ the only time I got recognized was in Starbucks,” he said. “You knew you’d made it when they didn’t have to ask and your name was just on the cups.”

The crowd perked-up noticeably at the mention of a potential sequel to “Anchorman,“ the 2004 movie in which Carell starred as dull-witted weatherman, Brick Tamland. “The idea was to do it as a Broadway musical first, and kind of use it in the way the Marx Brothers used their stage show to figure out which scenes appeared in the movie.” Though the original cast and crew are enthusiastic about the project, Carell was not optimistic about its future. “Maybe it’ll happen some day,” he said.

Carell is not entirely comfortable being himself in public appearances. Whenever he makes a talk show appearance, he treats the part of “Steve Carell, movie star” like any other role. As he told Friend in the magazine earlier this year, “I play a character who’s more fascinating and gregarious than I am. I can do that for four to six minutes.” Either he was bluffing, or he’s got way more stamina than he gives himself credit for.